Jan D’Acosta, whose surname transformed into Lacoste in Russia, was born in 1665 in North Africa, where his ancestors had been forced to flee from Portugal. The flight was driven by political and ethnic motives: in Portugal, Marranos—Jews who had converted to Christianity—were actively persecuted. It did not matter whether they were baptized forcibly or voluntarily, whether they embraced the new faith or secretly practiced Judaism. Marranos and even their descendants were persecuted. Thus, the Lacoste family ended up in Hamburg after long wanderings.

He appeared there as a respected man, a head of family with a wife and children. By the time of his fateful meeting with Peter I, our hero had traveled all over Europe but had never stayed long anywhere. He found himself in Hamburg, where he opened a brokerage office, but it failed. Lacoste did not know what to do next. And just then, the Russian tsar arrived in the city, who, according to rumors, highly valued intelligence and talent. Lacoste was introduced to Peter I. According to one version, the Jew came up with a very witty pretext for the acquaintance: he decided to offer himself to the Russian tsar as an insurance advisor. But you cannot just meet the tsar like that—so our enterprising hero used the mediation of the Russian envoy Antip Husakov. Only the petitioner had no idea that in distant Russia, no one had ever heard of insurance. And if this was excusable for Lacoste, then Husakov, of course, was seriously embarrassed. Peter I, laughing, evaluated their efforts quite differently: he deprived Husakov of a month's salary for neglecting domestic realities, but took Lacoste with him to Russia.

This, however, is only a legend, albeit a very witty one. A more prosaic version of Peter’s acquaintance with his future favorite is given by the French ambassador de Lavi, who claims that Lacoste arrived at the tsar together with an amber cabinet—a gift from the Prussian king. The envoy’s education and sharp mind so pleased the sovereign that he took him along with his wife and children to Russia. However, it is hard to trust the Frenchman: in the same notes, he claims that Lacoste was fifty years old. One must understand that in those harsh times, few lived to forty. And a person over forty (even over thirty) was already considered very old. There is also another detail in the Frenchman’s notes that casts doubt on the accuracy of the facts he presented. He claims that Lacoste’s parents were Spanish. Meanwhile, according to other testimonies, they were Marranos, and at court, the foreign guest was called nothing other than “the Jew Lacoste.” With the sharp tongue of a jester, such a nickname would hardly have gone unanswered if it did not correspond to reality.

So, in 1714, Lacoste, with his wife and children, boarded a ship sailing from Prussia to Russia.

— How are you not afraid to board a ship, knowing that your father, grandfather, and great-grandfather died at sea? — asked a friend seeing the family off.

— And why did your ancestors die? — asked Lacoste.

— They passed away peacefully in their beds.

— So how is it, my friend, that you are not afraid to go to bed every night? — Lacoste smiled and set off on a long voyage to his new homeland.

Thanks to his excellent education, he became one of the tsar’s favorite interlocutors. However, Peter did not appoint him as an advisor but as a jester. Lacoste’s bold tongue brought the sovereign much pleasure. Unlike other rulers, Peter did not keep ordinary fools around, amusing himself with their indecencies and fights with courtiers. In modern terms, Lacoste became a court satirist who allowed himself very sharp jokes about the morals reigning in Russia and the foolish courtiers. Once, one of the boyars at court irritably asked the Jew why he was playing the fool. “We have different reasons for that,” Lacoste replied. “I lack money, and you lack brains.”

The jester, of course, immediately made many enemies at court. One of the most dangerous was Peter’s associate Alexander Menshikov, a powerful and touchy man. Alexander Danilovich had a terrible grudge against Jews. He repeatedly threatened to kill the jester in response to his bold remarks. The jester got scared and decided to complain to the tsar.

— If he really kills you, — Peter smirked, — I will order him to be hanged.

— I do not want that, — the jester replied, — but I wish Your Tsar Majesty would order him hanged before I die.

Peter was no less witty than the jester. After the conclusion of the Treaty of Nystad, Lacoste asked the tsar to reward him with lands taken from Sweden. The tsar was amused by the joke: indeed, courtiers often submitted petitions for things they were absolutely not entitled to. In response, Peter placed a resolution on the paper submitted by the jester: “To be given if there are no legitimate heirs against the treaty with the Swedes.” Thus, the jester came into possession of a tiny uninhabited island of Sommers in the Gulf of Finland. Instead of a seal, Peter attached a ruble to the charter.

Lacoste irritated courtiers and amused the tsar so successfully that he even received from the sovereign the title of “king” with a real coronation and subjects. True, the subjects the Jew was assigned were Nenets reindeer herders, who came to pay homage to the jester-ruler. These Nenets were a constant source of amusement for Peter: first, he appointed a certain Frenchman Wymeni as their king, arranged a lavish “coronation” ceremony, and had a riotous feast. When Wymeni died, he organized no less lavish funerals, to which he even invited ambassadors of foreign states. Barely had the funerals of one “Samoyed king” ended when they began preparing a feast for the “coronation” of a new one—Lacoste. The jester gladly played along and sat on the “throne.”

But the feud with the tsar’s favorite continued. The cruel intriguer Menshikov sought ways to ruin “the Jew Lacoste.” And he found one. During the Pruth campaign, Lacoste befriended another Jew close to the throne—Vice-Chancellor Peter Shafirov. Shafirov served Peter faithfully, but Menshikov found a way to destroy the high-ranking foreigner: he accused him of embezzlement and hiding his Jewish origin. Shafirov was thrown into prison and sentenced to death. Before the execution, Lacoste went to visit his comrade to dispel his bitter thoughts. Menshikov, learning of the jester’s visit to the prison, presented the matter as treason. Lacoste was exiled to Siberia. Antoine Divier tried to save his compatriot, but the only success he achieved was securing a carriage and two guards to accompany the jester to his place of exile.

Lacoste returned to Petersburg only during the reign of Anna Ioannovna. Although the empress did not like Jews, she paid special attention to some of them. She pardoned Lacoste, invited him to the capital, and restored him to the “position” of jester. But this was already a very different kind of jesting. Anna Ioannovna regarded satire with suspicion and demanded indecent jokes and silly antics from her jesters. The jesters under her sat on baskets of eggs and clucked desperately: the empress laughed to tears.

Lacoste was still considered the “Samoyed king” under Anna Ioannovna. The tsarina was greatly amused, for example, when the jester scattered handfuls of silver before his subjects, and they fought and shoved each other chasing the coins. And although Lacoste suffered from the new role he had to play at court, he became the first jester in whose honor Anna Ioannovna ordered a fountain to be built. Thus, the “Lacoste” fountain appeared in the Summer Garden.

The structure, however, was destroyed by a flood, but scholars believe that a figure of the court satirist stood on the pedestal. Another sign of attention the empress gave Lacoste was the Order of Saint Benedetto, which she established especially for her jesters. But neither the tsarina’s favor nor the patronage of Shafirov, who also returned to court, comforted Lacoste. He was already an elderly man; silly antics and pranks were not to his liking. The jester was tired.

There are different versions of his further fate. It was written that Lacoste returned to Hamburg. According to another version, he managed to get rid of his humiliating position only in 1740, when power passed to the regent Anna Leopoldovna. The new ruler released all the jesters, giving them generous rewards. She did not like their humiliating position. But how long Lacoste enjoyed his free life is unknown. There are no documentary records about his old age and death. There was only an anecdote that on his deathbed, the former jester told his confessor that he would like to ask the Lord to extend his years until he paid off his debts. “A very commendable wish,” the confessor replied, “hope the Lord hears it and maybe grants it. If the Lord really showed such mercy,” Lacoste whispered to one of his friends present, “then I would never have died.”

Sources:

http://www.ejwiki.org/wiki/Acosta,_Jan

https://jewish.ru/ru/people/society/4461/